Finally The Schenn has come back to Toronto

“When the schedule first came out, you know, you look forward to it. But I think both teams have moved on now and they’re having some success, too.” – Luke Schenn

The definition of success is a funny one. It seems like it should be the Flyers who are proudly sitting in fifth place in the East, poised to make a leap into a tie with Pittsburgh or surpass a division leader with a victory on Monday night. It seems like it should be the Leafs who are taking pride in getting over the hiccups of a slow start, pleased to be part of an early tie for the last playoff spot in the Conference. Surprisingly, the tables have turned, and with very little changing for either team besides the Schenn/van Riemsdyk trade, it seems like Schenn has a lot to prove against his former club on Monday. Moreover, he’s got to show his current club that he can eventually become the type of shutdown defenseman that can warrant giving up a player who now seems to be discovering his true offensive upside.

“One game is not going to prove who won the trade,” Schenn said. “It’s going to be a season, or years, to see who won it. So I’m not going to put too much emphasis on this game. … But it’s definitely exciting to be going back.”- Luke Schenn

While one game, or twelve, may ultimately not decide who won this trade, there seems little doubt that Toronto is the early victor. James van Riemsdyk is scoring at a pace that could see him set career highs despite the shortened season, and Schenn, who has been improving of late, has still seen his most notable moment in Flyers jersey take the form of a puck bouncing off of him into his own net. At least Luke can take comfort in being the better Schenn.

Despite the return of Luke Schenn being heralded as a victory lap in the trade that brought the Leafs van Riemsdyk, it’s still bitter sweet for a couple of reasons.

The player the Leafs wanted Schenn to be, an elite shutdown defenseman, is still one of the organization’s biggest needs, and while strong possession defensemen exist in the pipeline, there isn’t a Brent Seabrook/ Dan Girardi clone hiding anywhere. Ultimately, that’s what the Leafs wanted Schenn to be, no matter how clear it was that he was more along the lines of the Brendan Witts and Mike Komisareks of the world. Lesson learned: when you draft in the top five, make sure that player can skate at an NHL level.

Schenn’s return should also be a warning about development. Here’s a player that was brought into the organization with the highest of expectations, and was never given a chance to learn the game at his own pace. All Schenn did was pass Jay Harrison, Phil Oreskovic, Jamie Sifers, Jonas Frogren and Anton Stralman in the team’s depth chart, and that was enough to make us believe that he was somehow ready to take the NHL by storm. I hope next training camp it will take more than outplaying Mike Kostka for Morgan Rielly to make the Leafs, because it would be horrible to see another talent limited because he can win the sixth spot on a depth chart.

I don’t think in general people hold any ill will against Luke Schenn, and he’ll probably get some polite recognition for his service to the Maple Leafs. He did give us some great moments; his end to end Bobby Orr rush, his extermination of Evgeny Malkin, and the couple of years of hope he provided us with before we learned he couldn’t skate. We always knew he’d contribute something of value to the Maple Leafs, we just didn’t know it would be 6’3 potential point-a-game winger.

Godspeed Luke Schenn, I hope you forego the traditional multi-point night enjoyed by so many former Leafs on their return. Also, please don’t hit JVR too hard, we really like him.

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Jon survived in the wild for several years but now lives in captivity. His diet consists of meats and grains. He is on twitter dot com. Visit him at twitter.com/yakovmironov or his oft-neglected site yakovmironov.blogspot.ca